After a wildly successful dinner party hosted by our friends, the Versens, the group they gathered decided to start a supper club. We had all kinds of ideas for themes but settled on spinning a globe and each couple choosing a country as inspiration for their next dinner party. We got Morocco and hosted Saturday night. Here’s what happened… (all recipes on my Pinterest)
We were lucky to be able to borrow these great tagines from Hutch, our friend’s mom, who brought them back from a trip to Morocco. Definite lifesaver since most of our china/serving dishes/wedding presents are buried in our attic.
The terracotta tagines are from Sur La Table. My favorite part about this tablescape is my friend Susan’s old college tapestry being used as a tablecloth! Somehow I acquired it years ago and have been using it as a blanket for the park .
We picked up that Turkish bedspread on our honeymoon in Istanbul and threw it over the sofa to give things a Moroccan feel. Sorta worked.
The serving tagines were too big to all fit in our oven so Scott cooked the delicious chicken marbella in a roasting pan and transferred it.
First course was a fennel salad with cilantro, garlic and preserved lemon, a common ingredient in Moroccan food. I found the fennel salad recipe in a great cookbook I have called From Tapas to Mezze: Small Plates from the Mediterranean.
The tagines made for a dramatic presentation. Thanks, Hutch! On the left is a great swiss chard with ras el hanout and preserved lemon. I got the swiss chard recipe out of the recent Williams-Sonoma catalogue. Continue reading
